Jonathan Lipow is a righteous progressive

At its core, the Woke are building a movement that undermines the left and renders it powerless against its very real theocratic and fascist enemies. It pits men against women, heterosexuals and cis-genders against queer, black against white, and the working class against the intelligentsia. It cheapens science with several offshoots of the meaningless pseudoscience known as “critical theory” – a field so rigorous that one of the leading journals published a (fabricated) article claiming to expose endemic rape culture in a dog park to describe.[1] But most of all, the Woke teach young and idealistic students to seek refuge in “safe places” instead of learning how to overcome their fears and their enemies.

It’s almost like our enemies invented this thing.

[1] Lindsay, James, Peter Boghassian and Helen Pluckrose. “Academic Complaint Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship.” AreoFebruary 10, 2018.

This is from Jonathan Lipow, Public policy for progressives2023.

Jonathan is a professor of economics at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is in a different part of the university than where I was, but we have worked together as colleagues for many years.

Jonathan is a progressive and he wants to talk to other progressives who he rightly thinks need to hear his economic message. Of course, Jonathan and I don’t agree on everything. Remember, he’s progressive. But we agree on some things.

Over the next week I will post a few more posts about the contents of his book.

Here’s another excerpt, with my brief commentary, for now:

Yet, as we will see, logic and evidence strongly suggest that some policies currently popular among American leftists are indeed literally ridiculous, such as opposition to charter schools and nuclear power. Meanwhile, other policies widely advocated by progressives — such as a $15 minimum wage — are not foolish, but large amounts of evidence suggest they are ineffective and essentially a waste of time. [DRH note: I wish they were just a waste of time rather than a policy that makes it more difficult for young unskilled workers to get on the first rung of the economic ladder.] On the other hand, readers may be happy to know that progressives’ instinctive support for universal health insurance exists [DRH note: hmmm] and liberal immigration policies [DRH note: yes] are well supported by both logic and evidence.

More to follow.

Postscript: Here’s a post I did in 2016 about an earlier book by Jonathan, in which he said nice things about me: He did this to argue that my libertarian views wouldn’t work nearly as well in the world as I thought they would doing.